After Ozzy Osbourne's departure for a wildly popular solo career, his bandmates soldiered on, and this second volume of The Black Sabbath Story continues the saga from 1980 to the mid-'90s. And what a saga it was: American... more &raquo belter Ronnie James Dio--direct from Rainbow--replaced Osbourne, followed by a short-lived Ian Gillan, etc. Dio and original guitarist Tony Iommi gobble up the bulk of volume 2's interview footage, with the remainder of this too-brief (45 minutes) chronicle taken up by several videos and performance clips like "Die Young" and "Neon Knights" (from the first record with Dio) and the late-'80s pop-metal of "Feels Good to Me." Since Black Sabbath never again reached the heights of their mid-'70s glory days, there's a brief sense of letdown during volume 2, especially when the videos venture dangerously close to "hair band" territory. But throughout, the group has kept its perspective, even developing a sense of humor usually buried by its notoriously dark music. --Kevin Filipski&laquo less

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Movie Reviews

Not quite the rest of the story, but close

01/15/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Covering '79-92, this video has lots of great footage -- some of which Tony Iommi would probably rather you didn't see. Includes interviews with Dio, Tony Martin, Cozy Powell, Geezer, Iommi, Vinny Appice, Ian Gillan, and others. Includes great concert footage with Dio (whole songs) and Gillan (snippets), studio footage with the '92 "reunion" lineup and the horribly bad MTV videos from Seventh Star and Headless Cross. For Ozzy fans, the only tidbit is the complete "video" for Hard Road, from Never Say Die. Ray Gillen is mentioned for only two seconds and Glenn Hughes not at all, although he's obviously in the video for "No Stranger To Love," which features Tony Iommi's dramatic debut and Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) as his love interest. Great (terrible!) stuff. My only compaint is we could have done with more Gillan material."

Disappointed Sabbath fan

Johny Bottom | Jacksonville, NC | 07/13/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"What I didn't like about this home video was the way it was presented. It starts off with Ozzy's last single 'Hard Road'. From there it goes down hill. The Dio footage from 'Heaven and Hell' were great, but why talk during the songs? Were they so hard up for time that they had to talk during the music to cram it all into one video? The worst part of the package is the 'Born Again' era. I love Born Again and wish Ian had stuck around with Sabbath for a little longer. Ian says 'Without question I was the worst singer Sabbath ever had.' (I guess he's never heard of Tony Martin. Maybe Iommi agrees with Ian because the two songs 'Trash' and 'Zero the Hero' that are played are only small snips. Not only do you not here the whole song, but they talk during thoise too. To see Dio and Ian are the only reasons I bought this video. I love the Ozzy, Dio, and Ian eras, but from there my feelings for Sabbath are lukewarm. 'Seventh Star' is an OK album if you accept it for what it is, but the video with singer Glenn Hughes is just awful. From there it gets worse. Tony Martin is a generic singer who has no business in Sabbath and doesn't belong with them at all. Iommi only uses him when he can't get a gig with Ozzy or Dio. I don't like any of the Tony Martin albums. I have them because they are Black Sabbath, but it's really not. The video ends where Sabbath left off in 1992. Hope for the future with Dio back in the lineup on the Dehumanizer tour, a phenominal album. Unfortunately, the reunion with Dio and Appice was short lived and Dio left Sabbath while on tour swearing never to return. Why? Because he refused to sing with Black Sabbath who was opening for Ozzy. At the l;ast second, Iommi got Robn Halford of Judas Priest fame to sing the show.Vol II compliments the far superior Vol I tape, but falls flat in to many places compared to the first."

Fake Widescreen

10/08/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"The top and bottom of the picture are chopped off. Sometimes the tops of people's heads are missing, and sometimes they even compress the image so that it fits into the fake "letterbox" shape, so that everybody looks short, fat, and squished! Seriously, this is one of the worst instances of fake widescreen that I've ever seen."

DIO SABBATH AND BEYOND

Santeria | Tallahassee | 12/08/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is a Story of SABBATH, not a Concert video. Great Interviews with DIO, GILLAN ( very funny segment that explains where SPINAL TAP and Stonehenge originated). Fundamentally different to Volume 1 of the set THE BLACK SABBATH STORY; and yes you DO get 85 Minutes worth of material, just in several slabs. Dio seems to be at his most conciliatory, probably because of the then upcoming De-Humanizer tour. This is a real Gem, and I thoroughly enjoyed the DVD. SABBATH will Hopefully release a Third DVD to cover the period post 1993. And i hope they do this soon. I would especially Love to see a long interview with Bill Ward, since he has been the most honest, forthright, and consistently appreciable of the band members in talks and other interviews. You will see this in Bill's spots on this DVD, and it is worth the wait to see Bill on screen, although it is conceivable that Fans who like Volume one will not like the fundamentally different content in Volume 2 ."

Short, uneven, and sometimes a little embarrassing...

Foyleg | Sarasota, FL USA | 09/25/2002

(2 out of 5 stars)

"First off, I'm a HUGE Sabbath fan, and admittedly more so of the early Ozzy stuff, so I could be biased in that regard. However, I still feel this DVD could have been much better. Starts off strong with great Dio fronted performances. Some stuff from "Mob Rules" would have been nice. We get literally a two second clip of "Zero the Hero" (which I think is a great song). And then we get POWER BALLADS! Like the entire, cheese covered, glossy MTV videos. If you're into the late 80's Sabbath sound, this might not be so bad. Then the DVD ends with the "Dehumanizer" reunion album/tour with Dio. Would it have killed them to include the entire "T.V. Crimes" video? The main portion of this DVD is less than 45 minutes long (there are some extra interview type segments elsewhere in the menu). It seems as though all the good stuff (i.e. performances) are either clipped or interrupted. Black Sabbath may not have been in top form for a good portion of the 80's, but again, this DVD could have been a lot better."